HE First stage of Paris-Nice It was an open secret that it would end in a sprint (victory for Belgian Tim Merlier). They knew this even on Paseo de los Anglais in Costa Azul’s capital, where testing will end next Sunday. Now, suspicion and encouragement were in the knowledge if they were to move at the first opportunity Tadej Pogacar anyone Jonas Vingegaard in this encounter, like a blessing, spring has come to its doorstep, with July still to come, but on the roads common in the French tour.
Yep, it didn’t take long for Pogacar to arrive because he knows every second is worth its weight and because he doesn’t know how to run otherwise for the delight of all cycling enthusiasts. Something about wheeling, dead calmly, something about leaving miles and going and just wait for the hills marked in red For the others in the road book given to each rider, for the champions of other times when cycling season was summed up by riding quietly in March. small screen In the April classics, relax in May, warm up in the Dauphiné, and arrive at the Tour as softly as possible to end in Paris dressed in yellow.
It’s history because Pogacar smells the challenge and look at the most insignificant stage, the small slope, the white line drawn in an intermediate sprint, the opportunity to test Vingegaard, and the opportunity to add six bonus seconds, already placing him in third place, as this Sunday. Paris-Nice. And those six seconds won by the Slovenian star are already being held by Vingegaard, who is 33rd in the standings, and is perhaps a very small piece of stone that he has to counter in the team time trial on Tuesday. Jumbo looks a lot more since Pogacar Emirates to take advantage of the situation.
20 kilometers from the finish line of the first stage, third category level It was called Milon-La Chapelle. There, Pogacar put them all behind the wheel, causing the first confusion in Jumbo that made it clear that he was very lonely in the face of a complex future situation like Vingegaard.
But when a bonus sprint six kilometers away was announced, Pogacar showed up to sprint and tried to surprise Vingegaard, who crossed the intermediate line in fourth place but was deprived of the bonus. as if Pogacar sang a line on an imaginary bingo card.
The two even stayed with the French Pierre Latour. Leading alone in the purest style ever seen in the cyclo-cross season Between Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert. They rolled like this until they saw that going forward was bullshit that got nowhere without a sprint in sight and knew that Pogacar touched Vingegaard a little in the face as soon as they started Paris-Nice.